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MID WEEK MOTIVATION - HOLINESS "The Significance of Atonement and Community Connection" · Desoto Hills Baptist Church

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the Midweek Motivation Podcast from DeSoto Hills Baptist Church in South Haven Mississippi.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Here's your hosts Mark Lewis, david Burgess and Pastor Grant Stegall.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for February the 5th here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I'm Mark Lewis, I'm Grant Stegall and we hope this programming can encourage folks throughout DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: I'm Mark Lewis, I'm Grant Stegall, and we hope this programming can encourage folks throughout DeSoto County and beyond.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: We have had a blast doing the podcast the past couple of months and we can't wait to see what the future has in store.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: We always lead off the podcast with a few upcoming events here at the church and we have a couple we wanted to talk about.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: We have a Missions Madness event coming up on February the 22nd that is a Saturday.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: It's going to be held at Batesville at First Baptist Church.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: It is for kids, grades one through sixth, and parents are invited as well.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: If you want to come.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: It is an all-day workshop where kids are just going to have the opportunity to learn about various things when it comes to missions.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: They had a great time last year.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: It's a really, really solid event Like, laura is super excited about it, and I've heard from several people who had been before who said that it was an awesome event, so this is not going to be one that you're going to want to miss.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: You can sign up on the website.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: However, the deadline is today, february the 5th, so if you're listening to this podcast right now, we need you to go ahead and sign up.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: If you're listening to this a few days after the 5th, don't worry, just contact Laura.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: She said she typically has a few spots available that she holds, so go ahead and contact Laura.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Don't let the deadline run you off from at least having that conversation.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: But it's going to be a really fun event and, let's be honest, grant, either your child's sitting in front of a television because it's so cold outside, or playing on a game console, or they could have the opportunity to go fellowship with some other kids and learn something.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: So this is just a great opportunity for a good something to do on Saturday because, let's face it, in the middle of dreary, winter and boy it has been dreary and we're like you have a chance to learn about missions and see some other cultures.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: The way they do it, they involve you, know experiences to get you to experience another culture and things like that, and it's put on by the Mississippi WMU and so they do a great job, fantastic.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: You can sign up for that event, like I said, online.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: We also have the pre-teen retreat coming up in a few weeks, on February the 28th.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: That is sort of a Disciple Now-style weekend for our children.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: It is going to be on February the 28th.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: You can also sign up for that event on our website.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: We've talked about several details on the podcast with that and we've got a couple of details with that coming up in the future as well, but you can talk to Laura about that.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: It is basically Disciple Now for some of our older children and so that is going to be a Friday night and a Saturday morning.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: It ends on that Saturday at lunchtime.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: We do have a complete year calendar through June 2025.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: You can grab that on Sunday mornings at our welcome desk.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: All right, grant.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: The Super Bowl is this weekend.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Ohio State clinched the college championship a few weeks ago.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: I predicted that when I saw that it was between them and Notre Dame and I know Notre Dame always seems to get, you know, the raw end of the stick, and I think that's because they're not affiliated with any big conferences.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: They've always been sitting out in the wind on their own Right.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: They've always been sitting out in the wind on their own Right.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: I am sure that they pointed the finger at everybody and said see, the first year that we make a legit playoff setup.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: We actually made it all the way to the game and I give them full credit for that.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: But Ohio is Ohio and they are a tough team.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: I was a little hurt that no SEC team at all made it in.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: That's what was amazing to me.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: But you know, I heard ESPN talk about it constantly Everybody basically had the chance to control their destiny and they were not wrong.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Every one of the teams, the SEC teams, the powerhouse teams that I would call powerhouse SEC teams lost a stupid game at some point and, pardon my language, I use the word stupid.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: But there was some game that those teams should have won, that they all messed up on in some way, some form or fashion.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: So that was college.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Do you have an NFL team you tend to root for?
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: No, not really.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: It used to be the Dolphins Really yeah, because really it used to be the Dolphins Really yeah, because I loved Dan Marino.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: I've always.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: I don't know why this is the case, but even with NFL and Major League Baseball, I've never really had a team that I followed Because we got cable when I was a teenager and so a lot of people like they were huge Braves fans because some of them, some of my friends, who had cable way before we did, they were Braves fans because they could watch the Braves, right and you know.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: But I didn't watch the Braves and so I had players that I loved and so a lot of times I would follow teams because of players.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Like I grew up not grew up, but baseball in high school I was a huge Orioles fan because of Cal Ripken Jr, and so it was kind of the same football.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: I liked the Dolphins because of Marino, but you know Okay.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Did Coach Stegall have an NFL team?
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Did your dad have an NFL team?
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: No, we watched the NFL, obviously, but we were way bigger college football fans.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: What was y'all's college?
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: Mississippi State Really?
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, dad was a huge State fan and most of my family is.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: My family as well, and I don't root for Mississippi State myself.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: And you were a Southern Miss guy.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: Well, I grew up a State fan, worked at the BSU, at Southern Miss, kind of became a Southern Miss fan at that point.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: I don't know how true of a fan I am now, because most of the times I don't even know who Southern's playing or anything.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: I don't follow it super closely.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: I got you.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Well, I am a Cowboys.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know if that's always been the team that I have watched and enjoyed.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: I don't get upset when they lose.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Which is really valuable this year, anyway, Grant.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: It's been valuable since the 90s, really.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: This year anyway, Grant has been valuable since the 90s really this is true.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: This is true Now I will say as kids, when Clay and I played in the front yard and you know those old school uniforms that you had.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, I remember, I remember them.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: It was usually a Steelers or a Cowboys, because that was, I mean, the Terry Bradshaw era, the Roger Staubback era.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: Tom landry dad did like tom landry.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: I mean it was that era and so typically I guess as kids we were kind of cowboys and stealers some, but we got three stations.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: We didn't ever watch them play.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: I I mean I've heard your stories playing throughout the years, but tell us your basic journey through football Pee-wee.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Did you play Pee-wee?
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: No, my dad did not let us play.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: He always was concerned about kids breaking bones when they were super young.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: And that's interesting, because back then people didn't think about that quite as much he didn't like that.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: We knew some people that when they were little they broke bones and it hindered them the rest of their life, and so he was really concerned about that.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: And so he did.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: At South Fonda they had a peewee football league tackle you could play, starting in like third grade, and he didn't let us play.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: In sixth grade they changed a flag and I went to him and said Dad, it's flag football this year.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: Can I play?
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: And he said you can.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: And again he was concerned and he wanted us I don't know if it was to be well-rounded or just he didn't want all of our time, I guess, to go to sports.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: He wanted us to be kids too, and so he said I was a manager for the high school football team and he said you can be a manager or you can play flag football.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: You have to pick one.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: And I chose to be a manager.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Any one and I chose to be a manager.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Any kid would have chosen to be a manager.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: So we did that, so I didn't actually now we played in the front yard, we did all of those things, but I did not play any organized football until I was in the seventh grade but how much more did you learn by being around the high school?
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: oh, yeah, yeah, a ton so you started in middle school, yep started seventh grade, and then what positions did you end up playing um?
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: quarterback mostly really yeah, all right.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: Um, I guess quarterback every year until my ninth grade year.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: We got a new coach and I told him I didn't want to play quarterback, I wanted to play receiver.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: And after the first game, the starting quarterback on the freshman and the ninth grade team missed like three days of school and practice for no reason.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: Uh oh.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: And the coach came to me and said I can't rely on him, I can't trust him.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: You've got to do it.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: You know the plays, you can do it, you gotta play.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: And so I moved back to quarterback then and then played there through, played quarterback through my senior year.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: There were a couple of games in my senior year.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: I was hurt and played receiver instead of quarterback.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: And then when I went to Mississippi College my freshman year, I played, but I played receiver there.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: I was not anywhere.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: I wasn't good enough to be receiver either, but I sure wasn't good enough to be receiver either, but I sure wasn't good enough to be a quarterback at that level, how did you end up playing at Mississippi State, mississippi College?
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: sorry?
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: At that point it was D3.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: And so I mean they didn't give you pretty much, but yeah pretty much.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, so fond memories of football.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the last question I was going to ask you.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: You played other sports, including baseball.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Which of?
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: the games did you prefer?
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Baseball was my favorite, for sure, because I started playing baseball earlier, while we didn't play organized football young, you're not going to break a bone playing baseball.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: So I started playing baseball when I was five, like coach pitch out at south pontotoc, and so I started playing that way earlier.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: And um what?
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: outfield position did you play?
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: uh, all right, starting out in coach pitch I played first base a lot because I could catch and at that level if you've got somebody that can catch a grounder and throw it and a first baseman that can catch it, your team's going to be pretty decent.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: And we had a guy that could play like the pitcher area and could catch a ground ball and throw it to me and I could catch it.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: And so played first lot there.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: As I progressed, moved to shortstop, played shortstop basically throughout the rest of my career until I went to MC.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: Played three years of baseball at MC.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, so there's part of that story too.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Like after the first year of football, you were like I need to concentrate on school and baseball.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: It was going to have to be one thing I was never going to get to play.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: If I tried to play both, I was never going to play either Right.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: And so I had to pick one, and so I picked the one that I had the most chance to play on, even though I really didn't get to play that much.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: One year I dh'd um, I dh'd at mc for one of the years, but I never I never really just totally got to play um.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: And so, yeah, I picked and, but I played.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: If I played in the field, I played shortstop some, but they moved me to second base, which is probably better.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: My arm was stronger right and my arm wasn't showing enough to really play shortstop in college.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Alright, and so you have some fond memories, then, of college baseball.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and did you meet some friends on the team that became lifelong friends?
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, always, for sure.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Well, we're certainly looking forward to the Super Bowl this Sunday.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: It is always a great time for family and friends to get together and to fellowship.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: We're now going to shift to our devotion portion of the podcast that we call the Midweek Moment.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: So this week again, as I've been doing this, what I want to continue to kind of do is help us as we walk through the Daily Walk Bible that we're going through.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: So February 5th, we really started the book of Leviticus on February 1st.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: So February 1st, if I'm remembering correctly, was Leviticus 1.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: And so we've walked through Genesis and Exodus in a month, which is saying something.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: It's pretty fast, I mean, and there's a lot in both of those.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: And now coming to Leviticus, but as an encouragement, this is a time when I hear people all the time who say I'm going to read through the Bible in a year and you hit Leviticus and you're like you get bogged down.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: Oh my stars, this is crazy.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: What in the world are we reading?
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: And really the last part of Exodus, when you hit about Exodus 20 and God gives the law of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, and then from there it's building the temple, not the temple, the tabernacle and everything around that, and then you go into Leviticus and it's the sacrifices and all these kind of things, you can get bogged down.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: So what I want to try to do today is help us get a better grasp of just a let's take a huge bird's eye view of the end of Exodus and Leviticus to help us kind of come back and say, oh okay, I see, I can hopefully kind of see why this is important.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: So I have this little tool, mark, that I bought years ago I think.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: If I remember correctly, I was in the Lifeway store here in South Haven.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: They had these books up on the register.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: They used to.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: They used to promote certain books and they would have them up by the register and this one was there and I think that's where I got this book.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: But it just breaks down all 66 books of the Bible and gives you some important things and there's some things here that I want to point out in this book.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: It's called the Holman Illustrated Pocket Bible Handbook.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: And it's really neat, by the way.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: I was just looking at it and it's super cool.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: I saw one used on Amazon.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: I got it at Lifeway.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: It was published by Broadman and Holman so you might find it at Lifewaycom.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Still, I'm not sure If they don't have the pocket version.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: I know I saw just the regular size version.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: It was about $21, $22.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: But anyway, what this does is it kind of gives you a key text to each book For Leviticus.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: It says the key text is Leviticus 11.45, which says For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: And so a key term in Leviticus is holiness, and what we see is holiness is a characteristic of God, but it's also holiness is commanded by God to his people.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: If you're going to be my people, you've got to be holy, because I am holy.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: And so what Leviticus is?
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: You've been given the law and there's a recognition by God and Israel.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: We can't be holy.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: We can't do this.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: So a lot of what Leviticus is is okay, because you can't keep the law.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: Here's some sacrifices to help atone for your sins, to make atonement for your sins.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: It is talking about the Day of Atonement, which was a huge ceremony for Israel, because it was once a year that the high priest would go into the tabernacle, into the Holy of Holies, the place where the Ark of the Covenant was God's presence was supposed to be there.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: He could only go in there one time a year, and he could only go in there that one time a year after he had done all of these things to make sure he was clean, because if he went in there unclean he was dead, he was wiped out.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: And so you go into here to this day of atonement and to make atonement for the sins that the people have committed, so you could stay in relationship with God, because you've not been holy, but the call is to be holy, so because you sin.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: And so Leviticus presents all these sacrifices, and sometimes for sins that you meant to, that you intentionally did.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: But there's also sacrifices for unintentional, just in case you forgot.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: Here you go, in case you missed something.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: Here they are.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: So there's all of these sacrifices that you have to remember, and so it's all about being.
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: We have to be holy because God is holy.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: But I also want to point us to and I know last time we looked at this when we were in Genesis and looking at Abraham back in January and talking about his faith, I went to the book of Hebrews, but Hebrews gives us a New Testament appreciation for especially the law.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: Okay, and so in Hebrews, chapter nine, verse 1, the author of Hebrews says Now, even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: So what he's saying is he gave you the law, what to do if you broke the law, and a place to do it.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: The tabernacle is that earthly place of holiness.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: Verse 2, for a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of presence.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: It's called the holy place.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: Behind the second curtain was a second section, called the most holy place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, and which was the golden urn holding manna, aaron's staff that budded and the tablets of the covenant.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: Of these things.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: We cannot speak in detail because he's just running out of time, but you see the tabernacle set up and it was given.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Verse 6, it says these preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties, but unawares.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: Into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, the day of atonement that we read about today in Leviticus, the day once a year, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet open as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic of the present age.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: And he says this in verse 6, according to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: So he's saying we go even on the day of atonement and all these sacrifices that we talk about, while they were given to the people to atone for their sins, and they kind of did, but they didn't really atone for the sins, because if they did they wouldn't have to continually offer them, Because if they did they wouldn't have to continually offer them.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: But in verse 11, he says but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: He entered once for all into the holy places not by means of blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscious from dead works to serve the living God?
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: And so you see, what we see in Leviticus is the seriousness of God in the call of holiness.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: If he wasn't serious about his people being holy, he would not have given all these sacrifices, he wouldn't have given the law, he wouldn't have given all the sacrifices.
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: He was serious about that call.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: He also understood that these sacrifices, these stuff didn't really atone.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: So something had to be done to really provide atonement.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: Enter Jesus.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: Jesus comes and provides that atonement.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: And it is through Jesus and his sacrifice that we are really made holy.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: Because he says even over in chapter 10, that the priest says in chapter 10, verse 11, and every priest stands daily at his daily service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: Jesus' sacrifice was greater than all the others because it was the perfect sacrifice and it truly does make us holy, not because of us and our ability to keep the law, but because of him and his purification and justification that he offered to us through the cross and his resurrection.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: If you don't have a church home, we'd love to see you here on Sunday morning.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: You can catch our services online at desotahillscom.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: For all of our church family.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: We love you.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: We'll see you back here bright and early next Wednesday morning.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: God bless.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: This has been your Midweek Motivation.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: We'd love to have you join us in person on Sunday mornings.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Our services are at 9 and 10 30 AM.